The City Tour

Our guide is waiting for us when we come down at 9am. We head across the street to the Opera House, where we’re met with crossed arms and “Sorry, they’re filming. You cannot access the interior.” We make do with the rather splendid surrounding rooms, admiring the marble shipped from Spain and Italy. At the height of the rubber bonanza ships went to Europe laden with rubber and returning with the marble we see here and in several palaces. Wonderful chandeliers came from Venice and furniture from France.

Outside the sun is beating down on an empty square, due to the Corpus Christi holiday. We move on to the magnificent residence belonging to a German rubber baron. He had a passion for birds, even after an egret pecked out one of his eyes. He lost all his money gambling, returned to Germany and left the house to the city.

Next stop is the busy port area, and from there we walk through a thronged fruit market, piled high with watermelons, plantains, and from there we hurry though a pungent fishmarket and continue into the old municipal market, selling a million things.

We’re flagging with the heat and walking through the busy areas and Oswaldo sits out a quick foray into yet another port area, where I see guys huddled around a table with a towering goblet of beer, called a “torre” and also a large sign recording the heights of the water each year.

We’re exhausted when we reach our hotel, but find the energy to have a delicious lunch at the nearby Caxiri restaurant, where we also try a really tart ‘gumba style’ caipirinha, which numbs our tongues!

There’s a free performance at the theatre at night. We go early to sit in a cozy little café next to the entrance. We chat up the staff, explaining our earlier frustrated visit, and they let us in to look at the astonishing interior, with lavish decorations depicting the arts and names of famous artist, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Racine, and so on.

We’re happy to have seen it and to be able to have an early night for tomorrow we’ll be picked up at 7am for the long trip into the jungle lodge.